Six Months
by Traci
Summary: Nick has lost so much so far and Jenny wants to help but the appearance of a new anomaly may change everything. Claudia/Nick/Jenny
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Very sadly not mine because if they were Claudia never would have disappeared!!!! Anywho – er, ITV owns this show, or BBC America here.

Rating: K

Category: To say would give it away.

Spoilers: Most of the series so far… especially the Claudia/Jenny situation.

Author: Traci

Summary: Nick has lost so much so far and Jenny wants to help but the appearance of a new anomaly may change everything.

* * *

**Six Months**

* * *

Six months.

_I have a bad feeling about this._

The last words he heard her say to him… six months ago.

"Nick?"

He wanted to ignore her. To look at her was too painful. A horrid reminder of what might have been in another place, another time, with another person.

"Nick?"

Her hauntingly familiar voice broke his already shattered heart that much more.

"Fine, then I'll do all the talking here." She sat down, crossed her arms and stared at him. "I know Stephen's death is difficult but you can't just hide from the world and shut the rest of us out."

For the first time since she walked into his office, Professor Nick Cutter finally looked at his visitor. "You have no idea what I have lost."

Her features softened and she sat a bit further back in the chair. "Then tell me."

"You wouldn't understand."

A sad yet knowing smile spread across her lips. "Claudia."

He nodded.

Jenny Lewis sighed. She had never really understood who Claudia Brown had been as the only person to even have any knowledge of her seemed to be Nick but Helen's comments about the striking similarities between the two had forced Jenny to face the fact that Nick had not been crazy afterall.

"Tell me about her," she softly told him.

His eyes sparkled as he smiled. "She was…" Just the quickly the sparkle and smile faded away. "Holding onto the past does no good. So what really brings you here?"

"Lester's not sure about continuing on with the program."

"What? He can't do that! Lives are at risk…"

"I know!" Jenny quickly cut him off. "I've been arguing that with him but you know him. He's been looking for any reason to get you out of there."

Nick sat back in his chair and looked out the window. "Maybe he's right."

"You don't really believe that."

He looked at Jenny. "I lost my wife, I lost Stephen, I lost…"

"Claudia," she finished for him. "It always seems to come back to her."

"I'm sorry. I know you hate hearing her name."

Jenny shook her head. "It's okay. Knowing that she was a real person who you obviously cared about a great deal makes it a little easier." She paused. "Back when that…shark thing nearly killed me you had mentioned about Helen leaving you to go through the anomalies and the only other woman you liked left you too. Was that Claudia?"

He nodded.

"I can't imagine she would just up and leave."

"It wasn't like that. Helen and I… we somehow changed the past when we went through the anomaly and when we came back…"

"She no longer existed."

His eyes settled on an empty spot on his desk and he remained quiet.

Jenny leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "I'm sorry," she softly told him.

Before the conversation could continue, Jenny's cell rang. "I'm with him right now, we'll be there soon."

"Another one?" Nick asked.

She nodded, standing up. With a small smile she said, "This time in Sherwood Forest."

Grabbing his jacket, Nick stopped and stared. "You're kidding me."

"Nope, might want to get you bow and arrow too," she teased as he followed her out the door.

* * *

Nick and Jenny arrived together, just ahead of Connor and Abby, eliciting a curious look from Lester.

"Sorry if I was interrupting," Lester commented. "We have a rather…unique… situation here." His eyes fell upon Jenny. "It would seem Professor Cutter isn't as nuts as I first thought."

"Thanks," Cutter muttered but before he could say anything further, he saw what had caused Lester to make the comment. Well, more he saw who.

"C… Claudia?"

Slowly the mysterious woman turned around to face Nick. Tears welled in her eyes and she launched herself into his arms. "Nick! I thought we'd lost you for good."

His arms tightened around her, afraid if he loosened his hold even the slightest she would once more disappear from his life. "Claudia Brown, I've missed you so much."

"Me too," she sniffed into his shoulder.

Jenny stood a distance back watching the scene unfold. She tried to ignore the feel of Abby and Connor's eyes on her gauging her reaction. Her heart both broke and filled with joy at the site of Nick Cutter happier than she had ever seen him.

Nick looked at Claudia without letting her go. "How… I thought we changed the past with those stupid…" Before he could continue, he felt Claudia's lips press firmly against his and just as quickly he gave in and deepened the kiss.

Jenny looked away and wondered how she could be so jealous of, well, apparently herself.

"A bit of an awkward situation," Lester muttered beside Jenny.

She remained silent, biting her inner cheek to both keep from going off on Lester and from crying.

Nick and Claudia ended the kiss mainly out of need of oxygen, but even as they stepped away from each other, Nick laced his fingers through hers and together they faced the rest of the team.

Lester was the first to speak. "I thought you might be interested in what came through the anomaly this time."

The grin on Nick's face said it all then his eyes fell upon Jenny and there was a small falter in his smile as his heart gave a little jerk of guilt inside. He had accepted Claudia would never exist again and, as a result, had begun to open himself to the possibility that maybe he and Jenny could have something. He knew Jenny had started to think the same.

She stepped forward, smiling at Claudia's shock upon seeing herself. Extending her hand, she introduced herself. "Claudia Brown, I presume? Jenny Lewis."

Claudia looked from Jenny to Nick, her eyes full of questions.

"I know," he replied.

With the anomaly fully secured by the military, Lester stepped forward. "Might I suggest that since any imminent danger is now gone, we continue this back at the ARC?" Lester turned and headed back to the car before anyone could offer any other suggestion.

* * *

Jenny found Nick standing outside of the women's locker room. "How is she?"

He sighed. "A bit shook up."

"It's to be expected," she responded with a smile. "How are you?"

He smiled back. "A bit shook up." He took a deep breath. "Jenny, I…"

But she quickly held up her hand. "Don't. There's no need. I suppose part of me suspected this might happen someday, well, once Helen confirmed your story that Claudia had really existed anyway." She bit her lower lip. "So… what happens now?"

Before he could respond the locker room door opened.

tbc...


	2. Chapter 2

Three hours had passed since Claudia's appearance and the team, including Claudia, were all seated in Lester's office.

Pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers try to ward off a headache, Lester asked, "Explain to me again how this could happen?"

"It's possible that these anomalies are more than portals to the past and future. It's possible, and based on the fact that Claudia is standing right here very probable, that they also link parallel universes." Nick repeated once more.

"So what you are saying is that there may just be another you out there somewhere?"

"Pretty much."

"God forbid," Lester muttered. "Alright, for sake of argument, is it possible for both Miss Brown and Miss Lewis to exist in the same universe without any side effects?"

Concern quickly clouded Nick's eyes as he looked to Connor. That was a scenario he had not thought about.

Connor shrugged. "To the best of my knowledge nothing like this has ever happened before."

Nick looked over at Claudia and Jenny, who happened to be sitting next to each other. "How do you both feel?"

Jenny replied, "Fine."

However, when Claudia's pained eyes met his, he knew the answer. No. Jenny and Claudia could not exist in the same universe. In an instant he was kneeling beside her. "What is it?"

"Just a migraine. I'm sure it's just coincidence."

Reaching into her purse, Jenny handed her doppelganger a couple of aspirin and a glass of water from the table.

"Thank you," Claudia responded.

Lester stood up. "Cutter, Connor, a word." He walked out of the office with the two men following. Stopping out of earshot, he looked at Nick. "It appears you have a decision to make."

"Maybe it is just a migraine. It has been a crazy day for her, for all of us," he defended.

Lester just looked at him.

Nick looked to Connor. "Is there any way to be sure?"

Connor shook his head. "With all we know of science, I really don't see how they can co-exist in the same universe."

"Cutter, you yourself know."

Nick looked through the window to see Abby and Jenny at either side of Claudia as her pain grew worse. "Is the anomaly still open?"

Making a quick call, Lester nodded. "But they said it's getting weaker."

Why? Why had she been given back to him only to be taken away again? Fighting back tears, Nick went back into Lester's office and helped Claudia to her feet. "We have to get you back," he softly told her.

"No. I looked for you for too long," she weakly protested.

"I know but I can't watch you die," he pleaded, slowly walking her to the elevator with the team following, Jenny falling back a bit.

* * *

By the time they reached the anomaly, Claudia had nearly passed out from the pain. Having no other option, Nick picked her up and carried her closer to the anomaly.

"Nick, don't leave me," she whispered.

He closed his eyes for a moment as those words took him back to another time when he nearly lost her to bloodthirsty, primitive bats. "I'll always be with you. We'll find a way to be together again, I promise." Carefully he lowered her feet to the ground as she tried to keep her balance.

Through the pain and the tears, her eyes found his. The pain he had felt years earlier over Helen's believed death, the death of his own wife, was nothing compared to the pain of losing Claudia once more. "I'm coming back with you," he found himself saying.

Taking her hand in his, he heard Lester and the others shouting in the background trying to stop him. They were easy to ignore.

"You can't," Claudia said. "You are needed here."

"I won't leave you again."

"Nick…"

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning quickly, he was surprised to be face to face with Jenny.

"Claudia's right, you are needed here."

"Jenny…"

She shook her head. "And you need Claudia and she needs you."

Claudia tightened her grip on Nick's arm as she used him to support herself through the migraine pain.

"You can't," he told Jenny realizing what she was about to do.

"I can and I will." She turned to Claudia. "Hopefully this works and if it does… take care of him."

Before Claudia could respond Jenny disappeared through the anomaly only seconds before it closed for good.

An eerie silence fell upon the forest.

Nick continued staring at the spot where Jenny had stepped out of his world until he felt Claudia stir beside him. Looking at her, he watched the eyes that had been filled with so much pain moments earlier, clear up. "Claudia?"

"It's fading." She gave him a small, sad smile. "It worked."

Wrapping his arms around her, he held her tight.

"She gave up her life for me," Claudia muttered into his shoulder.

"Jenny's still alive," he reminded her.

Claudia pulled back a little to look at him. "But she gave up everything and everyone she knows so I could stay here."

Nick smiled at her. "Yes she did."

* * *

Six months.

_I can and I will_

The last words he heard her say to him… six months ago.

"Nick?"

He looked up from his desk and grinned.

_Thank you, Jenny Lewis_, he thought as he stood up, grabbed his jacket and walked over to greet his visitor.

Claudia Brown chuckled. "It's a good thing we have weekly dinner dates because I don't think you'd remember to eat otherwise."

He kissed her but said nothing. He hoped tonight he would be able to change weekly dinner dates into daily ones for the rest of their lives.

The End


End file.
